First Persian woman to be ordained to the episcopate consecrated in Canterbury Cathedral

[Anglican Communion News Service] The first Persian woman to become a bishop was consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury Nov. 30 during a service in Canterbury Cathedral. Guli Francis-Dehqani, the daughter of the former bishop of Iran, Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, will serve as the first suffragan bishop of Loughborough in the Church of England’s Diocese of Leicester. Her family were forced into exile after a botched assassination attempt on her father – who was also the first president bishop of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. Her mother was injured in that attack. Her brother, Bahram, stayed behind in Iran. He was murdered in 1980 and is commemorated in Canterbury Cathedral’s Chapel of Saints and Martyrs.